Phone plugs have long been used for the establishment of temporary electrical connections in a wide variety of industries and applications, such as music and audio. Occasionally space and geometry constraints require that conductors to be electrically connected by phone plug enter the phone plug at a ninety degree (90.degree.) (i.e., right) angle to the longitudinal axis of the phone plug. Historically right angle phone plugs consisted of the tip, ring and sleeve stem connected perpendicularly to a stamped, flat base plate, such as the line of "Flat-Plug" Phone Plugs (Models Series 22X and 23X) manufactured by Switchcraft Incorporated of Chicago, Ill. A second stamped or plastic molded cover plate was screwed onto the flat base plate to provide a housing within which screw or solder connections were made to the conductors.
Such right angle phone plugs were more expensive to manufacture and assemble than conventional straight phone plugs, and more likely to fail mechanically due to the nature of the right angle connection between the stem and flat base plate. Additionally, such right angle phone plugs were more time consuming and therefor expensive to assemble due to the need to make multiple screw connections between the cover plate and the flat base plate.